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The International Press Institute (IPI) today is among 90 civil society and press freedom organizations calling on the Rwandan authorities to ensure an independent and thorough investigation into the death of prominent journalist John Williams Ntwali. Authorities said Ntwali died in a traffic accident on January 19 but have failed to provide any additional information about the circumstances of his death.

The statement is provided in full below:

Rwandan authorities should allow an independent, impartial, and effective investigation, drawing on international expertise, into the death of John Williams Ntwali, a leading investigative journalist, 90 civil society organizations and media associations said today. Rwanda鈥檚 international partners should press the authorities to allow and cooperate fully with such an investigation.

Ntwali鈥檚 family was informed of his death on January 19, 2023, when the police asked Ntwali鈥檚 brother to identify his body at the Kacyiru Hospital morgue. The police told the that Ntwali died in a motorbike accident in Kimihurura, Kigali, on January 18 at 2:50 a.m. However, two weeks after the alleged accident, Rwandan authorities have failed to provide a police report, the exact location of the alleged accident, any photo or video evidence, or detailed information on the others involved in it.

A journalist who saw Ntwali a day before his death told that: 鈥淗e looked cautious and switched off his phone before we started talking鈥� He said phones could not be trusted. He told me that all the doors on which he knocked were closed but he was determined to face life. His death was so sudden.鈥�

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Ntwali was regularly threatened and attacked in pro-government media for his investigative reporting. In June 2022, he Human Rights Watch:

鈥淚鈥檓 told that after CHOGM [the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting], they won鈥檛 play around with us anymore. I鈥檝e been told five or six times. I receive phone calls from private numbers. Some [intelligence] people have come to my house twice to tell me. NISS [National Intelligence and Security Services] has told me: 鈥業f you don鈥檛 change your tone, after CHOGM, you鈥檒l see what happens to you.鈥�

Ntwali played a leading role in covering and bringing attention to the plight of Kangondo neighborhood residents, who are in a long-standing dispute with the authorities over land evictions. At the time,: 鈥淚’m focused on justice, human rights, and advocacy… the three are risky here in Rwanda. But I’m committed鈥�. Those who try to speak out, they are jailed – harassed, intimidated or jailed. Second, forced to flee their country. Three, some of them disappear in thin air. Or even, they die.鈥�

Ntwali was also one of only a few journalists in Rwanda independently covering , and about their conditions in prison. In June 2022, he told Human Rights Watch about the on some of these critics and opponents. Recently, he also published videos on his YouTube channel about people who had .鈥� His last , posted on January 17, was about the reported disappearance of a genocide survivor who had spoken out about being beaten by police officers in 2018.

Rwanda has an obligation, under international human rights law, to ensure an effective investigation into Ntwali鈥檚 death.聽 The right to life is enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples鈥� Rights, and according to the, 鈥淪tates shall take effective legal and other measures to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of attacks against journalists and other media practitioners, and ensure that victims have access to effective remedies.鈥�

Rwanda鈥檚 president is the Chair-in-Office of the Commonwealth since the last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, held in Kigali, Rwanda, in June 2022. The Chair-in-Office represents the Commonwealth at high-level international meetings and the Commonwealth Secretary-General鈥檚 conflict prevention and resolution work for a two-year period. In the , member states reaffirmed their core values and principles, including upholding human rights, freedom of expression, the rule of law and the role of civil society.

The, adopted by the Commonwealth Law Ministers in November, state that 鈥淢ember states should act decisively to end impunity through impartial, prompt and effective investigations into all alleged cases of killings, attacks and ill-treatment of journalists and media workers, by prosecutions to bring the instigators and perpetrators of such crimes to justice and by the provision of effective redress for the victims.鈥�

Rwandan authorities have consistently into and accountability for suspicious deaths of political opponents or high-profile critics, such as . Therefore, regional and international experts, such as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions or the African Commission on Human and Peoples鈥� Rights working group on the death penalty, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killings and enforced disappearances in Africa should be involved in the investigation.

An effective investigation needs to be independent, impartial, thorough, and transparent, conducted in full compliance with the (The Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death).

We, the undersigned organizations, urge Rwanda鈥檚 international partners, including the Commonwealth, to stand by their stated commitment to media freedom and to call on Rwanda to allow an effective, independent and prompt investigation into the suspicious death of John Williams Ntwali.

The groups are:

1. Al Khatim Adlan Centre for Enlightenment and Human Development (Sudan)
2. Amnesty International
3. Article 19 Eastern Africa
4. Association Des Journalistes Ind茅pendants Du B茅nin
5. Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia
6. Baraza Media Lab (Kenya)
7. Bloggers Association of Kenya
8. Botswana Editors Forum
9. Center for Advancement of Rights and Democracy (Ethiopia)
10. Center for Strategic Litigation (Tanzania)
11. Centre for Development and Research (South Sudan)
12. Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (Nigeria)
13. Chapter Four (Uganda)
14. Coalition for Whistleblower Protection and Press Freedom
15. Coalition of Somali Human Rights Defenders
16. Committee to Protect Journalists
17. Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
18. Commonwealth Journalists Association (International)
19. Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (South Sudan)
20. Daryel Human Rights Organization (Somalia)
21. Digital Rights Lawyers Initiative (Nigeria)
22. Eastern Africa Editors Society
23. EG Justice (Equatorial Guinea)
24. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
25. Ethiopian Human Rights Defenders Center
26. Ethiopian Labour Rights Watch
27. Ethiopian Women Rights Advocates
28. Federation of African Journalists
29. Federation of Somali Journalists
30. Human Rights Centre Somaliland
31. Human Rights Foundation
32. Human Rights Network for Journalists鈥揢ganda
33. Human Rights Watch
34. Inclusive Vision for Democratic Ethiopia
35. Index on Censorship
36. Iniskoy for Peace and Development Organization (Somalia)
37. INK Centre for Investigative Journalism (Botswana)
38. Institute of Commonwealth Studies
39. Inter Africa Group
40. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
41. International Press Association of East Africa
42. International Press Association of Uganda
43. International Press Institute
44. International Service for Human Rights
45. Isha Human Rights Organization (Somalia)
46. Kalkaal Human Rights and Development Organisation (Somalia)
47. Kenya Editors Guild
48. Kenya Human Rights Commission
49. Kenya National Civil Society Centre
50. La Maison de la presse du Niger
51. Lawyers for Human Rights (Ethiopia)
52. Ligue centrafricaine des droits de l’Homme
53. Maka Angola (Angola)
54. Media Foundation for West Africa
55. Media Institute of Southern Africa鈥揟anzania
56. Media Rights Agenda (Nigeria)
57. National Association of Black Journalists (United States)
58. Network of Ethiopian Women Association
59. Observatoire des Droits de l’Homme au Rwanda
60. Patronat de la presse tchadienne
61. Patronat de la Presse Togolaise
62. PEN Afrikaans
63. PEN Gambia
64. PEN International
65. PEN Nigeria
66. PEN Sierra Leone
67. PEN South Africa
68. PEN Uganda
69. PEN Zambia
70. Premium Times (Nigeria)
71. Protection International
72. Reporters sans Fronti猫res
73. Resource Rights Africa (Uganda)
74. Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
75. Rwanda Accountability Initiative
76. Somali Children Welfare and Rights Watch
77. Somali Journalists Syndicate
78. South African National Editors鈥� Forum
79. South Sudan Human Rights Defenders Network
80. South West Human Rights Defenders Network (Somalia)
81. Surbana Vision Medias and Community Services (US/Eritrea)
82. Syndicat National des Journalistes Ind茅pendants du Togo
83. Syndicat National des Professionnels de la Presse de C么te d’Ivoire
84. Syndicat Professionnels Information Communication S茅n茅gal
85. The African Editors Forum
86. The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation (Malta)
87. The Horn of Africa Civil Society Forum
88. Tiger Eye P (Ghana)
89. Union of Journalists of South Sudan
90. Vision Ethiopian Congress for Democracy